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How Impeachment Works
Let’s Review Impeachment: charging a government official with a crime. n. the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official. It does not mean removal from office; it is only a statement of charges, akin to an indictment in criminal law. Impeachment does NOT mean removal from office! It means the president will be CHARGED WITH A CRIME. Then the Senate holds the trial, and if the president is found guilty, he is removed from office. A government official can be impeached for committing “treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors.” That last part is based on British law that basically means abusing their power or harm to society, not necessarily committing…
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Abortion
History of Abortion Laws Abortions have been happening for a long time. Pretty much as long as people realized they’d rather have sex more often than they want to be pregnant. For a lot of history, abortions were legal until the woman felt the fetus moving, known as “quickening” or “ensoulment.” After the quickening, it was illegal to perform an abortion. These were the laws that governed the United States until the 1800s. In the 1820s, Connecticut enacted laws aimed at apothecaries who sold women “poisons” to induce a abortion, and New York declared post-quickening abortions a felony, and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor. As the medical profession advanced, physicians advocated…
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Special Prosecutors
What is a Special Prosecutor? These guys have a lot of names: special prosecutor, independent prosecutor, special counsel, independent counsel. They all mean roughly the same thing, a lawyer who is appointed to investigate something where the normal investigation agency has a conflict of interest. The highest profile ones are when the President might have done something wrong and it would be weird for the Justice Department to investigate their boss.
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The Emoluments Clause
What is an Emolument? Simplest answer: presents. Gifts. Swag. Benefits. But more specifically, presents given to get favors in return. And in the constitution it means presents given to government officials by foreign governments, whether they’re trying to get in good with a diplomat or they just think you needed a jewel-encrusted snuff box to complete your decor.
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State of Emergency
In the United States, declaring a state of emergency gives the president powers and authority which are not normally permitted, in the interest of addressing a crisis quickly, by bypassing the normal political process.